Labor leaders expected to endorse strike support for Rite Aid workers

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Executive board members with the Los Angeles Federation of Labor AFL-CIO are expected Monday to endorse strike support for an estimated 6,000 unionized Rite Aid workers in Southern California. Members from the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents the employees, already voted to authorize a strike if necessary. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Members from the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents the employees, already voted to authorize a strike if necessary. The federation’s strike-sanction endorsement would mean that 300 member unions — representing about 800,000 union members and their families in Los Angeles County — would honor the strike.

The logo for Rite Aid is displayed above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Workers are at odds with the pharmacy chain on a variety of issues related to wages, healthcare benefits and full-time status. Their current labor contract expired July 14 after months of negotiations. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement.

“They came in with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude,” said Mike Shimpock, a spokesman with the UFCW, Local 770. “We’ve given proposals they can live with — proposals that we believe are acceptable. But they have beenimmovable on key issues.”

Officials with Rite Aid could not be reached Friday, despite repeated attempts.

Rite Aid’s current proposal, according to Shimpock, would eliminate 25 percent of full-time positions and replace them with part-time employees, many of whom would be ineligible for health care or retirement benefits.

The offer also would eliminate healthcare benefits for company retirees, leaving thousands in the lurch. The union also claims Rite Aid wants to exclude employees from having a say in their healthcare benefits.

“That’s a huge deal,” Shimpock said. “Rite Aid workers aren’t paid the best, but they do offer decent benefits and pay into a pension. That’s why people stick around. This would be pulling the chair out from under them.”

Under the existing system, union members and the company jointly manage a trust fund that covers healthcare benefits. Rite Aid wants to withdraw so it can exercise complete control over employee health care, the union said.

The company did that in Seattle a couple years ago, according to Shimpock, and workers’ healthcare premiums and deductibles skyrocketed as a result.

“There was one worker up there who had been paying $40 a month for her family and now it’s $300 a month,” Shimpock said. “There are people who have worked for this company for 30 or 40 years, and if they retire they have healthcare through the trust fund. This would eliminate that.”

Dolores Alvarez, 67, of Altadena is worried. She worked at a Rite Aid in Glendale and at another Rite Aid in Pasadena before retiring two years ago. An elimination of her healthcare benefits would hurt, she said.

“I’m not married and I have no other source of medical help,” Alvarez said. “I do get MediCal, but without the Rite Aid benefits … I’m going to pay more money.”

Alvarez is especially concerned about medications.

“I had my thyroid removed, and I have to take medication for the rest of my life for that,” she said. “That’s expensive, but I can’t function without it. If I don’t take it I get chills and sweat.”

The union additionally claims Rite Aid’s proposal would exempt nearly 90 percent of employees from wage increases. If any employee’s wages are affected by minimum wage increases or the employee is at the top wage tier, for example they would get nothing, the union said. That would apply to the vast majority of workers.

Shimpock said the union will continue to negotiate in hopes of reaching a compromise. But if if that doesn’t happen, a strike could be looming.

Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.

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